The French Australian Review – No 71 Australian Summer 2021-2022

JANE GILMOUR & ELAINE LEWIS, Foreword

PATRICIA CLARKE, Australian Connections with the Franco-Prussian War 1870 and the Commune of Paris 1871
WINNER OF THE 2022 IVAN BARKO AWARD

In 1870 the Sydney Morning Herald published reports of the fast-moving Franco-Prussian war from its Paris correspondent Anna Blackwell culminating in her forced departure from the city as it was about to be besieged by Prussian forces. Her graphic eyewitness account of her escape by train to Boulogne was followed in 1871 by an equally graphic account of the operation of the short-lived Paris Commune by Irish-born London-based journalist, Frances Cashel Hoey. Hoey’s eyewitness account, first published in the English periodical the Spectator was widely republished in Australian capital city newspapers leading to her appointment in 1873 by the Victorian weekly the Australasian to write a regular women’s column ‘Society and Fashion’ from London. The Franco-Prussian War was the greatest overseas news story in the Australian press in 1870 and the revolutionary Paris Commune made the city the centre of world interest. Both Anna Blackwell and Frances Cashel Hoey were great reporters who saw immediately that they were witnessing events that would live in history.

Keywords: Franco-Prussian War 1870, Paris Commune 1871, Anna Blackwell, Frances Cashel Hoey, female foreign correspondents, Sydney Morning Herald, Australasian.

WILLIAM A. LAND, The Légion d’Honneur in Australia

The history of the Légion d’honneur in Australia dates back to the first award which was made to Sir William Macarthur in 1855. The Légion d’honneur is situated in the context of other French awards and its significance in terms of French-Australian relations. An appendix provides an overview of the history of the Société des Membres de la Légion d’honneur.

Keywords: Légion d’honneur, l’Ordre du mérite, military awards, Société des Membres de la Légion d’honneur (SMLH).

DEIRDRE GILFEDDER, Australian Film Festivals in France: Interviews with the Founders of Three Festivals of Australian and New Zealand Cinema

While Australian cinema occupies only a niche market in France it has found a place with French audiences and in French film culture. The role of three festivals of Australian cinema in making Australian films more widely available is highlighted with the three founding (and current) directors of these festivals.

Keywords: Festival du Film Australian, Le Bout du Monde (Pézenas), Festival du Cinéma Aborigène Australien à Paris, Festival des Antipodes Saint Tropez, Helen Buday, Greta Morgan Elangué, Bernard Boriès, Festival Rochefort Pacifique Cinéma et Littérature, La Rochelle.

ELAINE LEWIS, Australian Art in Paris: Gallery Arts d’Australie Stéphane Jacob

Stéphane Jacob established Arts d’Australie in Paris in 1996, after a visit to Australia when he first became acquainted with Aboriginal art. The interview that forms this article was based on an article in Le Figaro that appeared in March 2020. The interview covers Jacob’s passionate interest in and extensive knowledge of Aboriginal art and his promotion of this and other Australian art through his gallery in Paris and his links with other cultural institutions in France and Europe.

Keywords: Stéphane Jacob, Guy Cogeval, Isabelle de Beaumont, John Kelly, Musée des Confluences Lyon, Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Editions Arts d’Australie Stéphane Jacob.

MARIE-THÉRÈSE JENSEN, The Droulers Family in Australia

The links between France and Australia that arose in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the wool industry are many. This article tells the story of the author’s grandfather, Jean Drouler, who came to Australia in 1912 as a junior buyer for Masurel Fils. He and his wife settled in Australia after the First World War and became an integral part of the French community in Sydney. One hundred years later, their descendants now number over one hundred.

Keywords: Masurel Fils, Jean Droulers, French Chamber of Commerce (Sydney), Société de Bienfaisance (French Benevolent Society) (NSW), Jean Trémoulet, French Consul, Playoust family.

PETER MCPHEE, French Australian Encounters no 7: Finding Traces of the French Revolution in the Landscape

Physical traces of the French Revolution are few and far between in the built environment. Renowned historian of the French revolution recounts his voyages of discovery across France as he has located some of these vestiges.

Keywords: liberty tree Tamniès, Camps-sur-l’Agly, Saint-Julien du Sault, the church during the Revolution, Robespierre, autels de la patrie, ‘vandalism’.

EDWARD DUYKER, Revealing Père Receveur; A Portrait Beneath our Noses

Claude-François-Joseph Receveur, later known as Père Laurent, was a chaplain and naturalist on board the Astrolabe during Lapérouse’s fateful expedition. He died at Botany Bay, NSW in 1788 and was the first Catholic priest be buried in Australia.

Could he be the friar depicted in two images of the expedition? The author argues that the visual evidence would suggest yes.

Keywords: Lapérouse expedition (1785–1788), Macao, Brazil, Monterey, Gaspard Duché de Vancy.

The Annual Ivan Barko Prize

Awarded to Andrew Montana for his article in The French Australian Review, number 70., ‘Virtue and Sentiment: Madame Mouchette’s Art and Teaching in Melbourne 1881–1892’.

Key words: Andrew Montana, Berthe Mouchette.

BOOK REVIEW

GEMMA KING, Alexis Bergantz, French Connection: Australia’s Cosmopolitan Ambitions

The influence of cultural practices and motifs from France on nineteenth century Australian life.

Keywords: ‘Frenchness’, Alliance Française de Melbourne, New Caledonia, French convicts, World War 1.

BOOK NOTE

ELAINE LEWIS, Paul Wenz, A Coral Eden (Le Jardin des coraux) translated by Maurice Blackman, Sydney, Exile Bay ETT Imprint

A new publication in the Sydney-Paris Link series from ETT Imprint, A Coral Eden was first published in French in 1929.

Keywords: Jean-Paul Delamotte, Paul Wenz, Maurice Blackman, Tom Thompson, Sydney-Paris Link series.

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

Including: a note on a collection of Australian children’s fiction translated into French that has been donated recently to the State Library of Victoria by Dr Helen Frank; and a note on new translations and readings/performances of Australian plays by the Maison Antoine Vitez, Paris, within the context of ‘Australia Now’, an Australian government promotional program in France.

The French Australian Review – No 70 Australian Winter 2021

ELAINE LEWIS, JANE GILMOUR, Foreword

ROBERT ALDRICH, Keynote Speech: ISFAR 2021 35th Anniversary Symposium, From the French East Indies Company to the French in the “Indo-Pacific”

Robert Aldrich gives a concise overview of four centuries of the French presence in the Indo-Pacific region. The political and commercial idea of an ‘Indo-Pacific’, it seems, came to attention with a statement by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007, then was taken up by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in 2010. In 2013, the idea appeared in the Australian Defence White Paper. In the words of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, at the virtual meeting of the Quadrilateral group of powers of the region—Australia, the United States, Japan and India, though not including France—held in March 2021: ‘It is the Indo-Pacific that will now shape the destiny of our world in the 21st Century.

Keywords: Indo-Pacific, French presence in Indo-Pacific, 21st Century, Australia and France in a Regional and Global Context

ANDREW MONTANA, ‘Virtue and Sentiment: Madame Mouchette’s Art and Teaching in Melbourne 1881–1892’
WINNER OF THE 2021 IVAN BARKO AWARD

Australia in the early 1880s welcomed the professional artist and art teacher Berthe Mouchette from France, accompanied by her husband and her sister. Mouchette’s artistic and cultural influence was strong for well over a decade in Melbourne but she is absent from Australian art history, which has prioritised modernism and shunned flower painting, history painting and portraiture, subject genres in which Mouchette excelled.  This article provides a feminist perspective of Mouchette’s work and her contemporary impact. It reveals her French teaching methods and highlights her social networks to promote French culture and language. It shows how she fostered an appreciation of women’s art through her own example, and her student exhibitions, and how she expanded the public sphere in which women operated in an evolving society in Melbourne, prior to her departure for Adelaide due to the depression of the early 1890s.

Keywords: Berthe Mouchette, Australian art in the nineteenth century, Alliance Française de Melbourne

LYNN EVERETT AND RUSSELL CHEEK, ‘The Influence of the Lecoq School on Australian Theatre’

Lecoq School devotees in Australia have created popular and visually rich theatre that has widened the scope of audience appeal to include and embrace new spectators, taking theatre to people who would not ordinarily attend mainstream theatre performances. Through the acting, teaching, directing and devising work of its former students working in Australian theatre, the École Jacques Lecoq continues to influence theatre training and practice in this country.

Keywords : Lecoq School, L’École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq, influence of Lecoq school, Australian theatre

NATALIE EDWARDS AND CHRISTOPHER HOGARTH, ‘The Teaching Research Nexus: French-Australian Migrant Literature in the First-Year French Classroom’

 This article details the ways in which the authors bring their research into their pedagogical practise. Their research project is entitled ‘Transnational Selves: French Narratives of Migration to Australia’ and aims to discover, analyse and disseminate texts written by migrants in the French language from the nineteenth century to the present day. In this article, they discuss how they incorporate this important French-Australian cultural element into a beginner level language course, reminding students of the history and persistence of French-Australian cultural connections.

Keywords: Pedagogy, first-year language learning, literature in language teaching, migrant writing, travel writing, transnational literature

DOCUMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS

JANET LILLEY, French-Australian Encounters Number 6

The story of Janet Lilley’s meeting with Pâquerette (Totte) Feisselthe French translator of Mrs Jeannie Gunn’s classic book, The Little Black Princess.

DOCUMENT, Australian Theatre in France: 1994 and 2021

A brief account of two occasions when Australian playwrights were invited to France for readings and translations.

ELIZABETH RECHNIEWSKI AND ALEXIS BERGANTZ, The ISFAR Research Committee Report: ISFAR Research Committee Report on the ISFAR @ 35 Symposium, ‘Australia and France in a Regional and Global Context, Past Engagements and Future Research

ELIZABETH RECHNIEWSKI AND ALEXIS BERGANTZ, Travel Scholarship in Honour of Professor Colin Nettelbeck

KERRY MULLAN, Winner of the 2020 Ivan Barko Prize: Irene Rogers

LAUREN SADOW AND KERRY MULLAN, Obituary: A Tribute to Bert Peeters (1960–2021)

BOOK REVIEWS
PHOEBE WESTON-EVANS, Book Review: Crossed Lines by Marie Darrieussecq, translated by Penny Hueston

KIRSTY CARPENTER, Book Review: New Zealand Journal of French Studies

NICOLE STARBUCK, Book Review: Dumont d’Urville : L’homme et la mer by Edward Duyker

ELIZABETH RECHNIEWSKI, Book Review: Paris Savages by Katherine Johnson

BOOK NOTES, Paris Savages, Cast Among Strangers, a Paris auction and L’Exposition coloniale de 1931, Paris

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

A NOTE FROM LE HAVRE

From June 5 to November 7, 2021, the City of Le Havre celebrates Australian life and culture with the event ‘Le Havre, Australian stopover’

The French Australian Review – No 59 Australian Summer 2015

(SPECIAL WORLD WAR I ISSUE)

STUART MACINTYRE, Foreword

COLIN NETTELBECK, Introduction

LEAH RICHES, ‘De l’ombre à la lumière’ – Remembering Fromelles through a Century of Private Grief and Public Politics

This article examines the way the memory of the battle of Fromelles has been sustained in private and public spheres. It identifies three distinct phases from 1916 to the present. First, remembrance was predominantly private and localised, driven by returned servicemen and families. Second, a resurgence of interest in war memory saw Fromelles enter a public commemoration phase from the 1980s. Finally, with the recovery of the Fromelles soldiers, there has emerged a major reconnection between Fromelles and Anzac in public discourse.

Keywords: Fromelles, RSL, renaissance of war memory, personal memory, politics of commemoration, Lambis Englezos

JACQUELINE DWYER, Ahead of their Time – the French Economic Mission to Australia 1918

This article undertakes a more detailed description and analysis of the Mission than has been done to date, in order to cast light on French-Australian relations of the time. The author has drawn on a number of sources: the Mission’s official report for the general public, The Economic Relations between France and Australia; an article by Robert Aldrich ‘La Mission Française en Australie de 1918’, which was based on the diplomatic archives of the Quai d’Orsay; and the Rapport Thomsen.

Keywords: French Economic Mission to Australia, General Pau, trade, wool, Labour Mission

COLIN NETTELBECK, Not Just a Nostalgic Farewell: The “Dernière Heure” as a Landmark Document in Franco-Australian Friendship

This article argues that the story of a magazine, The “Dernière Heure”, produced by members of the AIF awaiting repatriation after the Armistice, contains many aspects of the complex story of the disengagement of Australian forces from the First World War, an assessment of the costs and an awareness of a deepening friendship between Australia and France.

Keywords: The “Dernière Heure”, The Jackass, Australian General Hospital in Rouen, James R. W. Taylor, Cyril Leyshon White, 1918-9

JANE GILMOUR, An Australian Chaplain on the Western Front, 1916. Extracts from the Diary and Letters of the Reverend Chaplain Joseph Lundie

Using her grandfather’s diary and a few letters that have survived, the author describes her grandfather’s experience as a chaplain with the Ninth Battalion on the Western Front. The published memoires of other chaplains add further substance to the experiences and attitudes of chaplains at the front.

Keywords: Ninth Battalion, Reverend Chaplain Joseph Lundie, 1916, the Western Front, Fleurbaix, conscription debate, chaplains

PAULINE GEORGELIN, Encounters between Diggers and Poilus: Finding the History in Family History

This article investigates the intersection between family history and its wider context, by exploring aspects of the interactions between French and Australian soldiers. It draws on family history research about the author’s grandfather who was born in France, moved to Australia and returned to France as a digger.

Keywords: family history, 14th Battalion, the Western Front, 1918, the ‘International Post’ interaction between French and Australian soldiers, the AIF Education Service

JILLIAN DURANCE, ‘Un bon souvenir pour nous’: Australian Soldiers Billeted in France and Belgium after World War I

This article is an exploration of the wartime connections between Australian soldiers and the people of France and Belgium. Its starting point is a postcard sent by a young Belgian woman to an Australian soldier (the author’s grandfather) after the war (1919).

Keywords: 21st battalion, 1919, host families, learning French, the Western Front, Nalinnes, contributions of the troops to village and rural life

ANDREW PLANT, Villers-Bretonneux: a Different Landscape. An Author’s Reflection on Remembrance of the Great War in Australia and France

The author, who is an author and illustrator of childrens’ books describes his research about the battle of Villers-Bretonneux and his visit to the town in 2011 to photograph, sketch and research locations for the book.

Keywords: Villers-Bretonneux, March 1918, role of the AIF in recapturing the town, Brigadier General Harold Edward Elliott, Brigadier General Thomas William Glasgow, German offensive on the Somme

ANNE BRASSART, ‘Je suis en Australie’: a Personal Memoir of Villers-Bretonneux

The author was a former inhabitant of Villers-Bretonneux and president of the Franco-Australian Assocaiaion of the village from 2007-2010. The article recalls her childhood memories of Villers-Bretonneux and her return, many years later to the village.

Keywords: impact of the war on the village, establishment of Museum in the school, Comité d’accueil Franco-Australien, the Australian Memorial, black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, 2009, Franco-Australian Association of Villers-Bretonneux

JOHN DRURY, Help from Afar: The Adoption of Dernancourt by Adelaide after World War I

This article recounts how Adelaide decided to adopt Dernancourt in Picardie at the end of World War I

Keywords: Dernancourt, the Somme, the British League of Help, Berthe Mouchette, Maire Lion, General Pau, fundraising activities

ELAINE LEWIS, A Selected Bibliography of Australian Literature Relating to World War I

Notes on Contributors to this Special Edition of FAR

Explorations – No 20 Jul 1996

(issued December 1999)

WALLACE KIRSOP, Foreword

DIANNE REILLY, Comte Lionel de Chabrillan (1818-1858) First Consul for France at Melbourne (1852-1858)

Gabriel-Paul-Josselin-Lionel de Guigues de Moreton de Chabrillan began his diplomatic career in Copenhagen in 1838, lost his fortune gambling, spent some time in Australia as a miner and was then appointed ‘Honorary Consul, Second Class’ at Melbourne. Although Melbourne society ostracised his wife and former mistress, Céleste Vénard (the notorious Parisienne “La Mogador”), it is clear that he himself earned their respect. His grave in Melbourne General Cemetery was restored by ISFAR members in 1994.

Keywords: Comte Lionel de Chabrillan, consul, Céleste Vénard, “La Mogador”

JOHN DRURY, Nicolas Émile Mouchette, 1838-1884, Acting Consul de France

The story of Nicolas Emile Mouchette, Chancelier and Acting Consul at the French Consulate in Melbourne. He arrived in Australia in 1881 and died there in 1884. His wife Berthe later founded the Alliance Française de Melbourne.

Keywords: Nicolas Emile Mouchette, Chancelier, Acting Consul, Berthe Mouchette, Alliance Française de Melbourne

WALLACE KIRSOP, Edmond About in Australia

French novelist Edmond About was once familiar to many Australians. A member of the Académie française, his novel, Roi des montagnes, was studied by French students in Australia during the late nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries.

Keywords: Wallace Kirsop, Edward About, Roi des montagnes, Academie française, Leaving Certificate

WALLACE KIRSOP, R.S. Ross on French Literature

Robert Samuel Ross, ‘a socialist with strong literary leanings’ produced a Catalogue of Books for Radicals (c 1919) which included book notes. Wallace Kirsop sees similarities between this catalogue and Andrade’s Catalog of Books for Radicals issued by William Charles Andrade of 201 Bourke Street, Melbourne (‘anarchists and booksellers’). R. S. Ross considers that a good novel can be read as a ‘living picture’ of an event or movement and reviews a number of novels by French authors such as Flaubert, Erckmann-Chatrian, Alexandra Dumas, Anatole France, Victor Hugo and Eugène Sue.

Keywords: R. S. Ross, William Charles Andrade, Andrade’s Bookshop, anarchist bookseller, French authors, Melbourne’s Radical Bookshops

BOOK REVIEW

Marcel Chicoteau, Bibliographia et obiter dicta (1939-1989), reviewed by Wallace Kirsop

Explorations No 7 – Dec 1988

WALLACE KIRSOP, Foreword

FRANÇOIS FONTAINE, A Coopérant’s Experiences in Melbourne

The 23-year old author, on a two-year (1977-79) work experience contract (in lieu of twelve months’ military service), was assigned to the Alliance Française in Melbourne as a teacher and a multi-skilled helper. The article is a highly personal and often humorous account of this period in his life, his early problems with Australian English, his friendship with two successive Directors and two successive Presidents of the Alliance, the constant stimulation provided by his job and his relationship with Australians in general as well as those who came to the Alliance to learn French.

Keywords: Alliance Française of Melbourne, Methodist Ladies College, Yannick Jezequel, Bernard Milluy

EDWARD DUYKER, Some Thoughts on the Mauritian Cultural Impact on Australia

A brief survey of the influence of Mauritians on Australian institutions and culture, in which the author argues that despite differences in their racial origins Mauritians can be considered as members of a single ethnic group held together by their language (Créole), their religion and the Gallic element in their background. After listing a number of personalities of Mauritian origin who made a notable contribution to Australian life and culture (e.g. Lloyd Rees), the article surveys the various associations and clubs in different Australian centres (but principally in Melbourne) where Mauritians gather.

Keywords: Sylvie Leclézio, Odile Leclézio, Léon Henri Magrin, Philippe Tanguy, Alfred North-Coombes, Henri Wilden, Stella Clavisque Club, Mauritians in Australia, Dr Georges Domaingue

COLIN NETTELBECK, The Consul’s Treasure

This article tells the story of the re-discovery in 1988 of eight tea-chests stored in the garage of a Melbourne man whose father was a former removalist. These tea-chests contained the archives of the French Consulate entrusted to the removalist in 1940 when the Consulate was closed down. The article explains how the Consul-General of 1988, instructed by his Government to return the archives to France, allowed local scholars to inspect the material and photocopy a limited number of documents relevant to the history of French-Australian relations before their return to the French Archives. The Consul-General also arranged for some reference works and serials, not required in France, to be donated to local libraries.

Keywords: Dominique Raoux, French Consul-General, 1880-1920 records, New Hebrides, WWI, Dame Nellie Melba, Baron von Mueller, Berthe Mouchette, Crivelli family, Ferdinand Maurice-Carton

EDWARD DUYKER, Mauritians on the Gold Fields: a Résumé

The voyage of Mauritians to the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s was facilitated by the large number of ships sailing between their country and Australia due to the booming sugar trade. The article discusses the history of the Mauritians who settled in Australia and of those who returned, the latter often under very difficult financial circumstances. The author, who deplores the scarcity of contemporary accounts of the role of Mauritians in the Gold Rush, concludes that by and large the Gold Rush was no more than a temporary diversion for most of them.

Keywords: gold rush, Bell Regnard & Co, Léon Burguez, Louis Gustave Adam, Eugène Fadhuille

BOOK REVIEWS

John Dunmore, Pacific Explorer: The Life of Jean-François de La Pérouse, 1741-1788, reviewed by Edward Duyker

Amédée Nagapen, L’Église à Maurice, 1810-1841, reviewed by Edward Duyker